The Raven & The Wolf

Chapter Fourteen

After hearing a quick pop, I’m bobbing up and down, signaling I have successfully landed on Macy’s back. Stanya screams and pulls Bitzie to a stop. I look behind me and don’t see Gedric, but Halthin is right behind me on Macy’s saddle.

“Where the hell did you come from?” Stayna demands as I pull Macy to a halt.

I laugh at her and wink. “Magic.”

She rolls her eyes. “We’ll talk later. We need to get to a cave and look Halthin over.” I couldn’t agree more so I nudge Macy into a run. About an hour later we finally find a cave. We pull Halthin off of Macy. I get a fire going while Stanya takes off his clothes. He’s sweating and his fever is spiking. I take off a glove and wave a green pulsating hand over him. I heal what I can, but I’m limited as to what I can do without the proper herbs.

“What happened to him?” Stanya asks, taking a seat next to him.

“Ari tried to break his mind. The enchantment held up spectacularly; but I’m afraid he has blood magic poisoning him as a result.” I take Stanya’s hand and borrow some of her energy as I try to fight it off. “He’ll be in a coma until we get him to a healer. I can fight off the poisoning until we get to Ridgewilf, but we can’t keep this up much longer.”

“What happens if you keep treating it?”

“The poison will affect me too.” I pull my hand back and let her go. I look at her. “Where is Gedric?”

“He went to find Halthin’s horse.” She rubs her hands together. “How far is Ridgewilf again?”

I look back through my memories. “A day or so if we climb straight up the mountain. A week if we use the pass. But Halthin has too much blood magic in him right now. He’ll be lucky if he lasts three days. We need to go straight up. Carrying his dead weight will take us two days.”

“Can’t you just teleport us there?” She demands.

I shake my head. “That’ll require touching his lifeline; which is right where the poison has taken roost. It’ll kill him and pass the poison on to me.” I rub my hands together. “But I can use my magic to carry him since all I need is his body for that.”

The sound of hooves hitting the ground catches our attention. We jump out of the way as two horses come flying into the cave. Gedric is shivering on top of Halthin’s horse, Lite. Malnick comes over and rubs my face.

“Gien gree.” I say to him. Which means; I’m fine, in Forest Folk. Gedric’s teeth are chattering as he looks back and forth between Malnick and me. We lead Gedric over to the fire to help him warm up. He catches me wincing as I sit back down next to Halthin. I run a hand over Halthin again. His heart is still strong, so he is fine.

I turn around and face the fire. My mask is soaked in water from the melting snow. I pull it off, starting to feel as if I’m drowning because of it. They gasp as I wring a large amount of water onto the cave floor. I look at them, completely confused. I take the scarf off my face and dab at my dry lips. They’re still staring.

“What?” I ask in slight annoyance.

“What happened to you?” Gedric asks.

I look at him with a look that questions his mentality. “Well now that you mention it, I did just fight a battle with an overpowered maddened Sheik.” I groan. “He’s stronger than I thought.”

I pull my hair out of its bun and pull at the back of my shirt, showing them the bruise beginning to form. “Got me pretty good.” I close my eyes and heal my battered skin and muscle. I catch sight of Gedric’s eyes as he watches the bruise erase like I was wiping away dust. I let my hair fall back over it.

“So what do we do?” He asks as he looks at me.

I stretch my back, making it pop. “Rest here until the storm dies down, then scale a mountain.” I make us all change into dry riding clothes before I transport the horses to Ridgewilf, with a note attached requesting aide.

An hour later I catch Gedric staring intently at the fire. I touch his shoulder, making him jump. I laugh as I sit next to him. “What’s wrong?”

He just stares at me for a minute before talking. “I’m just wondering if Ari drained you of your magic, does that mean he is as strong as you?”

I shake my head. “No. My magic is gone because I released those souls he had captured. It wouldn’t have been possible for a normal Sheik, even if they were as powerful as I am. But since I am also a guardian of death I have that ability.”

He falls silent. “What is supposed to happen after this Natasha? What if the person you find to take Ari’s place as guardian of the wolf becomes corrupted as he is?”

I sigh. “Then I just get to do this all over again, but that is life. There is bound to be some redundancy.”

He chuckles. “When you speak, it makes you sound wise, but your actions speak differently.”

I give him a curious look. “Well I am young and have time to learn. But I know for a fact that there is something I know.”

He gives me a curious look. “And what is that?”

“We’re both in need of sleep. Head to bed.”

“What about him?” He jerks his thumb back to Halthin. “Will he make it to morning?”

I nod. “I’ve healed his wounds; but at the rate the poison is developing, he should make it to morning.”

“Is he sick like you were?”

I shake my head. “He’s in worse shape; but if he dies, he just dies. He doesn’t destroy anything.”

“What were you speaking in the bar?”

I laugh. “A fake language the three of us made up as kids. Gibberish. Just sounds and words combined.”

“So only you three know it?”

I nod. “Yes. Why?”

He shrugs. “No reason. Lets hit the hay. We have a mountain to scale in the morning.”

I groan. “Thanks for the reminder.”

“Anytime,” Gedric chuckles, watching me while I stand. He stays by the fire, unmoving. I just shrug it off. It’s his funeral. Silently I go lay next to Stanya and lift her blanket up, then quickly slide up next to her. I throw mine own blanket over us and try to relax. Hopefully, our body heat will be enough to warm us when it grows darker.

When I wake, everyone is still asleep. Gedric has fallen asleep next to Halthin’s fevered body. I shift to my hands and knees, and crawl over to Halthin. I touch his forehead and feel along his body. He’s burning up. Carefully, I wave my hand over him and feel a strong pulse from his heart. There is an acidic touch on my tongue. Focusing on that taste, I gently touch it with my magic and swirl it around, aiming it away from his heart. I can’t get the poison out safely without the proper help, or treatment. I can’t leak it out of him, since this will not disperse on its own. Anything that is infected with this, will have a zero percent chance of beating it. Halthin’s saving grace is his magic’s strength.

Silently, I get up and start getting dressed. I dress from the bottom up, trying to save as much heat as I can. When I start lifting my shirt off, I feel a set of eyes on me. My back is turned towards the eyes, so I’m not too worried. With my culture, my back is always visible. Still, I can feel goosebumps on my back, and I don’t think it’s from the cold.

I kneel down and start digging through my bag for a shirt. “When did you finally go to sleep?” I ask Gedric, trying my best to keep my breasts shielded.

It’s quiet for a moment, and I hear his breath shake before he answers. “Not too long ago. Halthin’s breathing became shallow not long after you fell asleep, so I gave him some medicine. It seemed to help.”

I glance over my shoulder, noticing his eyes straining to stay on my face. “What did you give him?” That might explain why his condition didn’t seem to worsen.

“Some miagla,” he answers, the back of his neck going red. He pulls the white and blue flower out of his bag. “And some lingal.” He also pulls out the sage color nuts. “Since I can’t heal myself with magic, I always have these on hand.”

My eyes brighten. “Why didn’t you tell me you had them?” I demand, throwing my breast wrap on. Quickly, I turn and crawl over to Gedric on my hands and knees; still trying to give Stanya some rest.

“I didn’t know it mattered.” Gedric answers, going tense when my hand touches his to grab them.

I take one of each ingredient while I kiss his forehead. “This is lifesaving!” I nearly squeal. I pinch the lingal until a white cream comes from it. Carefully, I cover the miagla with it and open Halthin’s mouth; placing the mix onto his tongue.

Halthin starts screaming, the horrifying, decaying taste of the mix immediately waking him. I cover his mouth so he won’t spit it out with one hand, and will a magic crystalized jar to appear in my other hand. My hand begins to burn, sensing the blood magic poisoning Halthin. I pull that pain towards me, making Halthin scream more.

Stanya leaps to her feet. “What is going on?” She demands before her eyes land on me. Quickly, she leaps onto Halthin’s waist and pushes his chest down; finally catching up on what is going on. She’s still considerably smaller than him, so he’s still able to start thrashing under her. Carefully, I lift my hand from his mouth and pull red, bubbling, black magic from his mouth. Gedric helps hold Halthin down, seeing Stanya is struggling, while I guide the malicious thing into the magic jar. Quickly, I seal it and then force it to vanish into a dedicated marble block for Blood Magic kept in Deirda; the purple sheik clan.

A harsh gasp comes out of Halthin as his eyes snap wide open. I lean over him, my head next to Stanya, while Gedric pulls away; afraid he’s hurting him. Halthin’s eyes shoot back and forth between Stanya and me, his eyes lingering on my barely covered chest, and her exposed one. “Am I dreaming?”

I ignore that. “How are you feeling?”

“Confused,” he answers quickly, his voice going high. “Am I dreaming Nat? Wait, don’t tell me.” He says after a moment, putting his head back on the ground. “I’m not going to be able to finish it either way,” he mumbles, falling back to sleep.

Concerned by his delusional banter, I check his pulse. “Steady, it’s better than what it was. He must still have enough blood magic in him to make him hallucinate.”

Gedric starts laughing. “I think his confusion is a little justified ladies.”

“What do you mean?” Stayna demands, flipping her hair.

“Isn’t it a little too cold in here to be dressed like that?” He ask, pointedly covering his chest. Confused, I look over to Stanya to see if she knows what he’s talking about. It’s then that it clicks in my mind that Stanya’s breasts have popped out of her night shirt while wrestling Halthin, and she’s not wearing pants, just underwear. Her crotch is resting on top of his.

Stanya’s face flushes and quickly adjusts her top while she shifts off of him. “Fuck.” she hisses, immediately covering up the rest of her with a blanket. “This is your fault,” She hisses to me.

“How is that my fault?” I demand, unfazed by the fact that my breasts are barely concealed.

“You’re the one that crawled into bed with me,” she cries, pulling the blanket over her while she drags her bag to her.

“It’s snowing outside. We always do this when it’s cold. It’s how we don’t freeze to death.”

“Yes, but we were next to a fire. I must have been hot enough to kick my pants off in my sleep.” She throws her night tank top at me from under the covers.

“It’s not like I anticipated on this happening.”

“Well, next time, plan on it.” She snaps.

“You’re insane.” I shout when she tosses the blanket at me, completely dressed.

“I’m getting breakfast ready.” She points at Gedric, who currently looks like he’s the most amused man on this planet. “Get Halthin dressed and ready for transport.”

“You,” she growls, pointing at me. “Get dressed. We move in an hour.”

I give Gedric a bewildered look while he bursts out laughing. Stanya throws his bag at him and stalks to the far end of the cave. Well she’s not going to be talking to me anytime soon.